Referee Nicola Rizzoli speaks to Bruno Martins Indi of the Netherlands and Diego Costa of Spain after an incident in which the Spanish international was fortunate to escape a red card. Photograph: Ian Walton/Getty Images

Talk of redemption for Arjen Robben is premature

Yes, the Bayern Munich winger had a wonderful game, although Daley Blind was the stand-out performer for the Dutch, but talk of this match providing redemption for Arjen Robben after his fluffed sitter against Iker Casillas in the 2010 World Cup final is as premature as it is absurd. In the wake of John Terry’s penalty-miss against Manchester United in the Champions League final, there was much tittering when the Chelsea defender celebrated as if subsequent goal against the USA in a particularly dreadful friendly was proof positive that he is indeed a man for the big occasion. Robben’s performance against Spain in Salvador will have been more cathartic, but as long as that elusive World Cup winner’s medal remains conspicuous by its absence from his trophy cabinet, redemption for 2010 will remain unsecured.

Expect Spain to go out in the first round

Spain’s centre-back pairing was cited as a potentially weak link prior to this tournament and last night those fears were proved justified. Anyone can have a bad day at the office, but the manner in which Sergio Ramos and Gerard Pique, fairly slow defenders playing in a high line, were eviscerated by the Netherlands over 90 minutes here suggests they could suffer similar embarrassment against Chile in Rio next Wednesday, assuming Jorge Sampaoli’s normally rampant side don’t play with the handbrake on as they did for an hour against Australia. Spain had no answers once they conceded the equaliser and were utterly helpless in the face of Arjen Robben’s pace and Daley Blind’s precision passing. Even Australia will fancy their chances of beating the defending champions after witnessing last night’s surprise capitulation in Salvador. Defeat in the opening game need not necessarily spell disaster, but such a comprehensive hiding is unlikely to do much for team morale and it will be interesting to see how Spain bounce back from their greatest humiliation in many years.

The argument against video technology gets stronger by the day

Even with the benefit of endless replays, assorted pundits and TV viewers were resolutely unable to reach an even remotely unanimous verdict on whether or not Spain should have been awarded a penalty after Diego Costa went to ground under a “challenge” from Stefan de Vrij, prompting match referee Nicola Rizzoli to toot on his whistle and point immediately to the spot. My use of inverted commas obviously places me in the camp of those who think Costa gulled the referee by craftily stretching his trailing leg to hook it around the ankle of the Dutchman before going down, while plenty of others seem to think the official’s decision was entirely correct. Whatever our conclusions, they’ve been reached on the back of repeated viewings of the incident in a state of affairs that suggests introducing video technology to sort out these kind of contentious incidents would prompt even more of the entertaining bickering those in favour of using it hope to end.

Not a bit of it. Howard Webb has since conceded that he made a mistake in not dismissing the Dutch defender in Johannesburg, stating that he didn’t have a good enough view of the incident to be certain it was worthy of a sending-off. Whether or not Webb's Italian counterpart Nicola Rizzoli will be of the opinion that he was in error for failing to even book De Jong for the needless elbow he smashed into Sergio Busquets chest on the 15-minute mark here is entirely up to him, but the Dutchman’s apparently impulsive propensity for random acts of violence suggest that sooner rather than later, his luck will almost certainly run out. For all that, it was difficult to feel too much sympathy for his victim on this particular occasion, considering the Spaniard’s lengthy rap-sheet when it comes to on-field misbehaviour.

Diego Costa had an interesting evening ...

A Brazilian playing at a Brazilian World Cup for Spain. It was never going to end well. Loudly booed when his name was announced and jeered repeatedly throughout his 63 minutes on the pitch, Diego Costa seemed to cope reasonably well with the occasionally homophobic brickbats of his compatriots on just his third appearance for Spain since receiving permission from Fifa to switch his allegiance from the country of his birth to the defending champions.

Being roundly mocked by several thousand of your fellow countrymen can’t be too pleasant, but it’s difficult to know what effect, if any, the vocal accusations of treachery had on Costa.

He had a busy hour, missing a couple of decent chances, winning the decidedly dubious penalty from which Spain took their short-lived lead and fortuitously avoiding a red card when the referee failed to see him get up in the grill of Bruno Martins Indi. We can only imagine the glee with which the largely Brazilian crowd would have greeted his marching orders, had they arrived. This was always going to be a difficult tournament for Costa, who may well be having second thoughts about his decision to line up for Spain for all sorts of reasons in the wake of last night’s horror show.